Centre not consulting states on crucial issues: Sarkar

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government is not consulting state governments on crucial policy decisions, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said Wednesday.

"The BJP-led central government is not taking any opinion of the state governments before finalising crucial policy decisions," Sarkar told reporters the eve of the New Year.

A politburo member of the CPI-M, Sarkar said that various central government sponsored-schemes such as MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) and PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana) are being curtailed, that would affect the rural people.

He said: "We are not optimistic that the New Year would be good for the people as the BJP government is taking anti-people steps... People would face more hardships in the New Year due to the wrong policies of the union government."

Tripura's chief minister since 1998, Sarkar apprised media about the Left Front government's plans for the coming year.

"Despite the central government's negative attitude, we would continue our multi-pronged efforts for the welfare of the people and the development of the state."

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sarkar urged him to restore the funds allocated under the MGNREGS rural employment scheme in the state.

"The union rural development ministry has increased its allocation of funds under MGNREGS for Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and some other states but reduced central allocation for Tripura," Sarkar wrote in the letter to the prime minister.

He said that although Tripura had provided 87 days of work per household in the 2013-14 fiscal against the national average of 45 days, the state's allocation had been sharply reduced.